Your thoughts on a solar cart used as energy source.

chuckklr04

I've been kicking around the idea of using a cart as a storage for solar energy.

Double the size of the roof and cover with solar panels.
Then I could wire in an 2500-5000 110ac inverter.

Would like to use an 48 volt system with 8 6-volt batteries, but it looks like there is no way I find a 48 volt cart cheap. So I'm willing to settle for 36 volt.

Should increase the range by around 30%, and fully charge from 50% battery in 12 hrs of good sunshine.

This would be used as backup to a generator, and hopefully give the geeny some rest and save fuel.

BGW

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scottyb

an electric golf cart is not a very green thing when you consider the footprint to build, operate, and dispose of all the hazardous materials involved .... Consider the body and 50% of the remaining components are made from petroleum based plastics. The toxic Lead and Electrolyte water in the Plastic cases which are the nearly 400 pounds of batteries are an environmental hazard to transport, use, and dispose of. Add to that the coal fired Electric plant that runs the recharger and they really are not so green .... I have yet to see one outfitted with enough solar panels to toss the charger and still be usable..

Good Luck Though

gornoman

Not unless you work for NASA. It takes 12+ hours to charge that pack from 50% capacity to full using a 20amp 36v DC charger connected to shore power. You can EXTEND the range of a cart with solar, but you will NOT be happy with the results if you RELY SOLELY on this technique to power the cart.

Dave Box

If your plan is to run your household power from your cart then the numbers don't add up. Picking a middle power from your inverter range then 3600 watts using a 36 volt cart is a quiescent draw of 100 Amps and that doesn't take into account any system losses. In addition even if you extended the roof of your cart you would not have enough room to install the panels neccessary.

Of course there is nothing stopping you from installing 3, 12 volt, 10 watt panels in series and using them to trickle your cart batteries but as previously stated you will not be able to eliminate your charger completely.

Dave

chuckklr04

Not trying to be green or run my whole house on it. Just having a little power available when and where I need it. Sure would be nice to run a electric chainsaw or circular saw in the back 40 without hearing the genny run.

It looks like I could squeeze 9 45 watt panels on top. That's 405 watts at peak.

Which rounds out to around 25 amps, but in the real world probably is more like 15- 18 amps. Due to it not being noon in the desert.

sonicj

i was actually doing some research on this over the past few days...

just as a example, this cell is 0.5v @ 2.5a. 72 cells will get you your 36v (not sure if that will fit or not...) say you get on average 8 hours of sunlight. 8 x 2.5 = 20ah per day. depending on how much you use your cart, its possible you would never have to plug it in or at worst your charger would see roughly 20ah less duty everyday.
-sj

chuckklr04

That's about what I figured. At most the cart will need to sit in the sun for 1 1/2-2 days before a 100% full charge is reached.

Dave Box

I'm not a sparkie cart person myself but I understand that one of the purposes of the modern charger is to regulate the rate of charge so that when you first start the charger it applies a high current to desuphate the plates, then a lower charge to increase the voltage and finally a trickle charge to keep them topped up. If you use solely solar panels you will only ever be applying a constant voltage and thus current. If I had $700 worth of batteries to look after I think I would use a smart charger to maintain the pack and maybe a solar panel to keep them topped up after charging. $0.02
Dave

chuckklr04

Been digging around the net and somebody beat me to it.


Says his 48 volt system runs his whole house (minus central air of course).

chuckklr04

Smart solar charge regulators are available.